Wow, that's a lot of questions! For the moment, I'll just observe that the primary change in my pu life in the past few months is to order a few cakes of sheng and shu from Puerhshop. To the good: They are in the US, ship quickly, and have a fair number of inexpensive selections. To the bad: There's no way to know what is good and what is mediocre or worse.

We should form a committee of guinea pigs: each one orders a randomly assigned, inexpensive pu and then the guinea pigs vote thumbs up or thumbs down on each one. Maybe even send samples to each other. The bunch of Pu Pigs.

Salsero wrote:Wow, that's a lot of questions! For the moment, I'll just observe that the primary change in my pu life in the past few months is to order a few cakes of sheng and shu from Puerhshop. To the good: They are in the US, ship quickly, and have a fair number of inexpensive selections. To the bad: There's no way to know what is good and what is mediocre or worse.

We should form a committee of guinea pigs: each one orders a randomly assigned, inexpensive pu and then the guinea pigs vote thumbs up or thumbs down on each one. Maybe even send samples to each other. The bunch of Pu Pigs.

Not a bad Idea. There is just so many choices and so little reviews on pu.

We should form a committee of guinea pigs: each one orders a randomly assigned, inexpensive pu and then the guinea pigs vote thumbs up or thumbs down on each one. Maybe even send samples to each other. The bunch of Pu Pigs.

I have purchased and cataloged around 30 pu samples in the last few months. I've spent time with my tea teachers learning how to do a proper tasting like the buyers do and what to look for in a pu, etc. I have read, drunk, studied and even dreampt about pu.

I am impressed with the fortitude of your quest, O Seeker-After-Truth. But you might have created a crisis of expectation. After all, the damn stuff is just tea! It's like the postulate who climbed the highest summit to bask in the lone glory of his most revered teacher, only to find the old guy's got BO -- or worse, wears scent! Niche or whatever.

I am always enormously relieved if my puerh doesn't taste like cow manure. Once I'm over that hurdle, it just gets better*!